Q 01/05

Before Joe Biden, who was the last U.S. president to have also served as vice president?

A) Richard Nixon

B) Gerald Ford

C) George H. W. Bush

D) Harry S. Truman

Answer · why

C) George H. W. Bush

George H. W. Bush: after a single term, he lost his re-election bid in 1992.

Q 02/05

Biden represented which state in the U.S. Senate from 1973 to 2009?

A) Pennsylvania

B) New Jersey

C) Delaware

D) Maryland

Answer · why

C) Delaware

Delaware: he gave up the seat in 2009 to become Barack Obama's vice president.

Q 03/05

Biden was born in which Pennsylvania city?

A) Pittsburgh

B) Scranton

C) Allentown

D) Wilkes-Barre

Answer · why

B) Scranton

Scranton: after his father's business ventures failed, the family moved back there to live with his mother's parents.

Q 04/05

To overcome a childhood stutter, Biden memorised lines from which two writers?

A) Shakespeare and Whitman

B) Lincoln and Frost

C) Kipling and Tennyson

D) Emerson and Yeats

Answer · why

D) Emerson and Yeats

Emerson and Yeats: as a young teen he recited them in front of his bedroom mirror.

Q 05/05

Biden's father eventually found success in what line of work?

A) Insurance

B) Coal mining

C) Furnace cleaning

D) Used-car sales

Answer · why

D) Used-car sales

Used-car sales: he had been wealthy in the 1940s, before business setbacks upended the family.